AEW Grand Slam Mexico: Epic Atmosphere, Masterclass Heel Work, and an Avatar Runtime
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way right off the bat: two hours and fifty-four minutes for a weekly television show is completely unhinged. Tony Khan is out here treating a Wednesday night AEW Dynamite broadcast like he’s dropping Avatar 4 or directing a cinematic trilogy.
That massive runtime meant the main event—Will Ospreay vs. Mark Davis in a bloody Mexico City Street Fight —was a total casualty for anyone with a normal sleep schedule.
Even though Ospreay and Davis always deliver and everyone knew how it would end, asking a crowd or an audience at home to stare at a screen for basically three hours is brutal.
That minor grievance aside, the presentation, location, and the first chunk of this show made it one of the absolute best cards of the year.
Seeing Arena Mexico completely decked out in AEW branding gave it a massive, historic big-match aesthetic, and the crowd brought next-level, nuclear heat
The Hits: Character Work and In-Ring Clinics
Christian Cage is Untouchable: Teaming up with Adam Copeland and the Young Bucks against the Death Riders to kick things off was wild, but Christian’s heel work continues to be on an entirely different planetary plane. Mostly refusing to even look at his partners? Pure generational hater energy. As highlighted in our recent deep dive on his unreal character run, he’s simply unmatched at being the ultimate scumbag.
Andrade & Komander: Andrade is finally getting booked like the star he is ("How you know?"), and Komander is constantly putting on absolute clinics. Push that dude to the moon!
The Don Callis Family & Dominion: Kyle Fletcher vs. Speedball Mike Bailey was phenomenal. Fletcher taking the win was the right call, though Speedball made you believe. On the flip side, Dominion is fantastic and getting booked to perfection right now.
The New Champs: Hangman Adam Page and Brodido (Bandido & Brody King) taking the Trios titles off The Demand? Nothing overly revolutionary, but infinitely better than what was there before.
The Misses: Jericho's "Smiling" Era & Messy Bookings
The "Smiling" Chris Jericho Problem: Man, Jericho is completely cooked. His current "Smiling" babyface/tweener gimmick is an all-time low compared to his legendary historical iterations. Teaming up with Darby Allin and Mistico against Kevin Knight, Okada, and Hechicero just put a giant spotlight on how out of place he looks next to actual, elite modern workers. He's officially mailing it in.
The Women's Division Clutter: The Persephone vs. Kris Statlander match was a messy, overbooked car crash with too many run-ins and zero clear purpose. At least the hometown girl got the win to pop the massive crowd, but it needed a tighter layout. Meanwhile, as someone who is proudly the #1 Willow Nightingale hater, I just don't buy her main-eventing or standing across from Mercedes Moné—and pushing the Brawling Birds this fast feels a bit rushed.
Overall Grade: A
If you trimmed the fat and shaved off an hour, Grand Slam Mexico would easily be a contender for show of the year.
The atmosphere was legendary, MJF's Hogan-level return and assault on Andrade was elite television, and the wrestling mostly delivered. Just... maybe pack a lunch next time, TK.
